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Odette sent him a sharp look that held hidden meaning, but Talen seemed to purposefully ignore it. “Then there’s King Arden, with whom the House of Delvers is aligned. He was prepared to align with you through us before you made the foolish deal with Bastian.”
Odette, finally satisfied with her hair, looked at us. “What deal?”
“Thea can’t make another alliance now that she’s with Bastian.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re insane. You need alliances.”
“I need Bash,” I countered.
“Bash?” Odette rose as her eyes widened.
I bit my tongue. “Bastian. I need his power to grant me freedom, and he’s already proven useful. Without him I wouldn’t know why you have Mortal Queens, and I wouldn’t have tricked Vern the other night. He’s agreed to stand with the other kings to free the Mortal Queens, and when those kings see him bow tonight, they will have respect for me as an equal. I need them all to stand by my side to undo this realm’s bind on Mortal Queens if I’m to live.”
Odette stared at my painting and then at Talen’s face, which had gone slack. “I didn’t know that was your plan.”
Half of it. The paintings would be another.
Talen knelt. “Thea, it’s been tried before. It didn’t work.”
I’d guessed as much. But I was planning on pushing them further. I was willing to sacrifice their lives for mine, and for the lives of the thousands of girls who would come after me. I would sacrifice myself for them as well if it came to that. If I thought on it for too long, or on him, I’d break. So I didn’t. I only thought of Gaia and of every girl I knew back home who would be kept safe from this deadly fate.
“I will try it again,” I said blankly.
“Even if the kings could undo what their ancestors did, you’d need all of them to do it,” Talen explained.
“Right.” I nodded. “That’s what I just said.”
He pointed to the kings’s thrones outside. “The seventh king is missing. You’d need him too.”
His words hit me with a relentless force. I almost cursed. Or cried. Or yelled. Instead, I dropped my brush and stared at the painting of the three ambassadors back home, the last moment my life was normal. If I couldn’t find a way there, I’d never see that crowded center or hear the music or see my brothers again.
“I don’t suppose anyone has tried looking for the king?” Foolish hope dotted my voice.
“For hundreds of years,” Talen replied softly. “That plan can’t work.”
“It still might. Only six kings rule now, so that has to be enough.”
My determination was that of a child, but I clung to it all the same.
“It’s worth a try,” Odette commented, and I loved her for it. She put her hand over mine. “But be careful tonight. I know a thing or two about trying to manipulate kings, and it comes at a price.”
I packed up my brushes. “As long as it’s not my life, I’ll pay it.”
The evening came with the scent of cinnamon in the air, music in the halls, and my tallest shoes on my feet. I sat on my throne before anyone arrived, legs crossed at the ankles and arms draped over the sides with a distant expression on my face. Everyone entering from the courtyard would have an impressive first look of me below the stars received from a king. My dress was a purple so dark it was almost black, and my hair was twisted with black gems throughout.
Gaia was the first to arrive. She took one look at my throne and raised a brow. “That seems a bit much.”
Something about her blind acceptance of her fate while I was fighting so hard—to the point of being shot with an arrow and willing to give up my life to save her and all the future queens—grated at me. “Careful,” I said. “Those stars would make a brilliant weapon.”
She settled onto her own throne, her lips a thin line. Tiny diamonds lined her lower eyelid, shining only a fraction as bright as the stars above me.
“Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work,” she said, keeping her face forward.
Now it was I who didn’t reply.
Talen and Odette descended the stairs together, and I was struck by what a beautiful couple the pair would make. They separated at the bottom for Talen to take a spot at my side and Odette to welcome the guests.
“You’re fidgeting as much as you did at my coronation,” I whispered to him.
